Fabrication of ZnO nanogenerator potentially to be embedded in flexible printed circuit board

Abstract

In our work, we fabricated two kinds of flexible Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanogenerators (NG), which could be potentially embedded in flexible printed circuit board (FPC). First, we prepared ZnO nanowires (NWs) by a simple solvothermal method. Zinc acetate and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) were used as the precursors. Ethanol was the solvent. The diameters of most nanowires were around 20 nm to 30 nm, which shows that the synthesized nanowires have a uniform morphology. Then, we fabricated a ZnO nanowires film (NF) by a novel centrifugation method. The ZnO NF was characterized by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The SEM images show that ZnO nanowires were densely and laterally aligned in the NF. Finally, employing general flexible printed circuit process, we fabricated two kinds of ZnO nanogenerators, which can convert mechanical energy in ambient environment to electric energy based on the piezoelectric effect of ZnO nanowires. The fabrication processes are compatible to FPC process, so we think that the flexible nanogenerators can be embedded in FPC to form a self-powered system. The output voltages were tested by ATTEN ADS1102c oscilloscope. The open circuit voltage of PI-substrate nanogenerator can reach up to about 10V, while the max open circuit voltage of Cu-substrate nanogenerator is only 170 mV.